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What Tom Izzo said after learning of Michigan State’s tournament bid
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Even during a down year, Michigan State made its way into the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans extended their streak of consecutive March Madness appearances to 23 after putting together a strong run to close out the year.
Michigan State has its work cut out for it, as it will be playing one of the First Four games on Thursday night. The Spartans are a No. 11 seed and will take on UCLA for a chance to advance to the first round and take on BYU. Many expected Tom Izzo’s team — after beating Illinois, Michigan and Ohio State in the final two weeks of the regular season — would avoid a play-in contest.
Still, considering where MSU was in mid-February, it’s somewhat miraculous that it was able to get a bid. The Spartans have a chance to compete for a national title, and if we’ve learned anything from Izzo’s time in East Lansing, it’s to never count his teams out.
Following Selection Sunday, Izzo met with the media to talk about Michigan State’s tournament berth. Here’s what the head coach had to say:
Izzo opening thought is “I want to thank my players.” Says “they went through hell. Getting in is a big deal.” Hints there were “a few surprises, but there have been a lot of surprises this year.”
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 14, 2021
Izzo says goal remains to win the weekend: “It went from 2 games to 3 games. I can’t think of a team that’s more prepared … than we are” with back to back short preps during season.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 14, 2021
Izzo: “The NET is a joke. If the NET hurt us, that’s a joke. If not, I’m cool with that.” Says he was surprised with the play-in game but not disappointed.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 15, 2021
Izzo: "I'm not upset about a play-in game, but our conference should be."
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) March 15, 2021
Izzo asked if he’s happy with the Big Ten seeding and that no one “got screwed.” Izzo quips, “Really? You think that?” Adds he thinks 10 Big Ten teams could have been in the field.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 15, 2021
Izzo: “We’ve already played two 1-seeds. We already beat two 1-seeds. … I’d rather be the seed that we deserve.” Says mission “is to do something I’ve done a lot here, prove somebody wrong.”
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 15, 2021
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB